Business ethics and anti-bribery and corruption

Behaving with integrity and respect are key to G4S’ core values – they are an integral part of the Group’s strategy and form an essential foundation on which we carry out our business.

We believe that being a responsible and ethical business partner, employer, customer and supplier is not just a reaction to the challenges of legal compliance, but an important means of doing business and provides a clear market differentiator for G4S, particularly in many developing regions.

We have a group-wide business ethics policy that clearly defines what we consider to be acceptable and unacceptable business practices. We demand compliance with this policy from all managers and employees across the group.

In order to ensure that everyone in the group understands their obligations in relation to this policy, we carry out the following:

Regular updating and improvement of the G4S business ethics policy, incorporating evolving standards and legislation and evaluating any risk to the Group’s ethical standards.

Distributing the policy to senior managers and instructing them to review the policy and personally sign up to playing their role in ensuring its implementation and therefore the Group’s compliance.

Ensuring that all employees are aware of their obligations under the ethics code, through various communications channels, including values and induction training, employee magazines, awards programmes etc.

Providing specific training to all managers and supervisors on business ethics and preventing bribery and corruption through a tailored programme available in a variety of languages and formats.

We have now completed the global implementation of our new whistleblowing hotline and case management system and have received a total of 402 reports from our employees during 2016.

Whilst we believe that we must continue to raise awareness of Speak Out and further encourage our employees to report any concerns or wrong doing, we are pleased that the number of reports has increased since we introduced the new hotline.

All matters reported to Speak Out are reviewed and directed to the most appropriate channel for action. Many of these matters are grievances which are transferred to the relevant HR department to follow up, as they are best placed to investigate and resolve the matter promptly. Concerns regarding operational procedures are investigated by local management to ensure that relevant standards are being followed.

Investigations relating to other matters, such as bribery, ethical or financial issues may be conducted by our internal network of investigators or independent experts.

Matters of a serious nature are investigated at a senior and independent level, with 55 investigations completed during 2016.

The ethics steering group has continued to oversee case management of whistleblowing reports and conduct regular reviews of serious cases, the investigation’s progress and resulting actions.

Risk management

Our risks, including ethics and sustainability risks, are captured in a global risk reporting information system, These risks are formally reviewed annually by every business unit and head office function. An overview of our principal risks can be found in our integrated annual report www.annualreport.g4s.com

G4S Ethics code

Priorities for 2017

Implement further initiatives to drive risk management awareness and mitigation actions and embed these within our businesses.

Continue to increase awareness of Speak Out and create an environment in which colleagues are confident that they may raise concerns without fear of retaliation.

Improve our analysis of whistleblowing reports to better identify trends and themes and where necessary put in place strategic action to prevent similar issues in the future.